Kuzul

The Detroit Tigers stormed past the New York Yankees to win the 2012 American League pennant. But they would not have been in the position to even participate in the post season without the help of the Kansas City Royals.

Following a nine game winning streak in late May and early June, the Chicago White Sox were in first place in the American League Central. Save for a day here and there, the South Siders were on top as late as September 24th, with nine games left.

But the team collapsed and Chicago’s downfall can be linked to the Kansas City Royal’s victories against them. The 90 loss Royals won only 72 times all season. 12 of those wins were against the White Sox.

From August 6th to September 20th, the Royals and the White Sox played each other 12 times. The Royals record in those 12 games was 9-3.

Twice Kansas City swept the White Sox. And many of the wins were close, including a 2-1 extra inning victory on September 9th in Chicago. Mike Moustakas and Jeff Francoeur each singled home runs in the 10th and Greg Holland struck out the final two White Sox with the tying and winning runs in scoring position in the 10th.

And when the White Sox went on a five game winning streak in mid September that gave them a three game cushion with 15 to play, it was the Royals who sent them spiraling. Starting with Bruce Chen’s 3-0 victory over Chris Sale, the White Sox lost 10 of their final 14 games and lost the division to the Tigers.

The day after Chen defeated Sale, Eric Hosmer smacked a walk off single against Matt Thornton to give the Royals another victory of Chicago.

Had the White Sox just split the 12 games with the Royals instead of losing nine of them, they would have tied the Tigers. If they won seven of 12, they would have won the Division.

But the Royals were in their own way king makers. As a talented young Royals team enters 2013, they will go in knowing that one of their division rivals would have a chip on their shoulder against them.

And if the Royals can continue to see the development of Salvador Perez, Horner, Moustakas and Wil Myers, they could give fits to the rest of the Central and not just the White Sox.

Either way, if the Tigers win the World Series, they should send over some bubbly to the Royals. They would never have gotten in without them.

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Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander is going to face the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series in Comerica Park.

The Yankees have not been able to score a single run off of any Tigers pitcher not named Jose Valverde. In fact, their offense has been non existent in the postseason against any Baltimore or Detroit pitcher other than the closers.

What chance do the sputtering bats have against the league’s best pitcher, Justin Verlander? Game 3 is as much of a lock for the Tigers as a team could get. There is no way Verlander could lose.

Or maybe he could.

There have been several instances where a pitcher even more dominant than Verlander faced an easy foe in the postseason. And in each of these five instances, the unbeatable pitcher was beaten.

Do not get cocky, Tigers fans. There are precedents for even bigger upsets in October.

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The Washington Nationals were defeated in a soul crushing Game 5 of the 2012 MLB National League East Division Series by the deceptively invincible defending World Champions St. Louis Cardinals.

And as yet another starting pitcher, Gio Gonzalez, had a poor outing, one question hung over the entire series: Where was Stephen Strasburg?

There is going to be a tremendous amount of bitterness directed towards Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo over the decision not to pitch one of his best pitchers in the postseason. It is one thing to come up a strike short with your best team. It is quite another to lose by the tightest of margins with a weapon that was never taken out of the holster.

Oddly, there are some people, like CBS Sports insider John Heyman, who tried to brush aside any connection with the loss and Strasburg not being used. He wrote on his Twitter feed, “#nats defeat had nothing to do with strasburg. so let’s stop talking about it like it did.”

How can anyone say that with a straight face?

The Nationals starting pitching posted a 5.25 ERA, and that includes Ross Detwiler’s wonderful outing in Game 4. Washington’s bats scored enough to win Games 2 and 5 with a decent start.

Instead, they got two subpar outings from Gio Gonzalez and horrible starts from Jordan Zimmermann and Edwin Jackson.

So pointing out that an All-Star pitcher with electric stuff could have been used in one of those games and given the Nationals a better chance to win is out of line?

According to Amanda Comak of the Washington Times, Rizzo responded to the Strasburg question after the collapse Friday night by saying, “I’m not going to think about it.”

Well, it is nice to see that someone is not going to think about it. But that will be Rizzo’s legacy.

The Nationals, a franchise that had not played in a postseason series since Prince Charles and Princess Diana were newlyweds and in a city hosting its first baseball October since FDR’s first year in office, played their hearts out all year.

And Rizzo chose to not put the best team on the field because he wanted to win later.

With the disastrous performance by the Strasburg-less rotation and an overworked bullpen that did not get it done, the level of success that the Nationals will have to reach to justify the decision is sky high.

Nothing less than a World Series title in the very near future will be acceptable to put the debacle of the 2012 postseason behind Rizzo.

In the same Washington Times article, pitcher Tyler Clippard toed the company line and had an interesting quote:

And we showed to everyone that we had the personnel without Stephen in the playoffs to get it done. At the end of the day, it didn’t happen, but we showed we were good enough.

Actually, Tyler Clippard, you showed you were not good enough to get it done without Stephen Strasburg in the playoffs. And that is the point.

Had the Cardinals defeated Strasburg the way they defeated Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee last October, you could tip your cap and say, “They defeated our best.”

When they win a series like this, the lingering reality that they did not defeat your best is fair game to point out.

Mike Rizzo might not want to think about it, but he will be reminded every day until Washington, D.C. celebrates its first title since 1924.

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Last night, October 1, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies played at Chase Field. It was not a game where a lot was on the line in terms of the playoffs. The game went 13 innings with the Rockies winning 7-5.

But the game did feature some of the best and most loyal fans in all of baseball.

First of all, attending a Diamondbacks and Rockies game at this point in the year shows a level of devotion from these Arizona fans. The Diamondbacks are trying to get a winning record but they have been eliminated for a long time.

And unless there is bad blood in Arizona over the 2007 NLCS, it is a stretch to call this a rivalry game.

Diamondbacks fans were treated to a solid start by Wade Miley and a ninth inning game-tying home run by Paul Goldschmidt.

Then the game kept going. It was a Monday night, the proverbial school night. Two teams going nowhere and playing out the string faced off.

According to Baseball Reference, 24,123 were in attendance. Probably only one-tenth of that number remained to the end of the game.

Those are the most loyal fans in baseball. To stay all 13 innings with nothing on the line except the chance to see a walk-off win and be denied is almost cruel.

The Diamondbacks should have rewarded the fans who were there until the very end. Free tickets for a 2013 game or a chance to have Juston Upton show up at a birthday party.

The Diamondbacks are a franchise that have had trouble finding a fanbase.

In 15 seasons, the Diamondbacks have had eight winning seasons, won five division titles, played in two NLCS and won the 2001 World Series.

And yet they have not cracked the top 10 in attendance for the National League since 2004. When you consider they play indoors and it is air conditioned during the summer in Phoenix, that is a staggering statistic.

They need to reward the fans they have and build up some good will. If a fan stayed 13 innings to see their team lose a meaningless game on a Monday, that fan earned a free ticket.

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As I first wrote back in July for Bleacher Report, the Oakland Athletics are the best show in baseball. Seriously, if the A’s are playing, watch them. Win or lose, it will be a spectacular show.

Take the game played today, Sept. 29. It looked like the A’s were going to go quietly and let the Seattle Mariners get the best of them. Going into the bottom of the 8th inning, Seattle was up 4-1 and cruising to a win.

Jason Vargas pitched seven strong innings and Seattle manager Eric Wedge handed the ball to the bullpen.

Then the A’s gave whichever fans stuck around for the end a show.

First baseman Brandon Moss, whose error led to the first Seattle run, doubled home Coco Crisp to make the score 4-2, but Stephen Drew was thrown out at home on the same hit to end the inning.

See, even their inning ending plays are worth watching.

In the bottom of the 9th, still down 4-2, Jason Donaldson launched a game tying home run over the center field fence off of Tim Wilhelmsen.

Then in the bottom of the 10th, it was Moss again. This time he hit a walk-off three-run shot to give the A’s a 7-4 victory.

The Athletics scored one run in the first seven innings and six runs in the last three.

The team that was supposedly in a rebuilding mode has won its 90th game and are, as of this writing, 2 1/2 games out of first place going into the last day of September.

And of their 46 home wins, 14 have been a walk-off victory. More than 30 percent of their home victories ending with the winning run crossing the plate in the final inning.

You may not know the names, you may not have any emotional attachment to the Oakland Athletics, but trust me. Watch their games. If you like baseball, you will not walk away bored.

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There has never been a Washington baseball team that played in a major league that won 100 games.

The current Washington Nationals franchise never won more than 81 games before the current squad tallied 95 with five to play this year.

No other team reached that level, either. The two other 20th century franchises could not pass the century mark.

The original Senators won 99 games in 1933, the last pennant winner in DC. The franchise would pass 100 wins in 1965, but by then they had moved and become the Minnesota Twins.

The second Senators team won 86 games in 1969. Now the Texas Rangers, they won 96 games last year, the high-water mark for the franchise.

A few 19th century teams played in Washington. But neither the Washington Statesmen of the American Association, the Washington Senators or Washington Nationals of the National League nor the Washington Nationals of the Union Association ever cracked 100 wins in a season.

And when the current Nationals team existed as the Montreal Expos, they never won more than 95 games a year.

So this Nationals team stands with five to play with a shot to achieve what the franchise and city never saw: 100 games.

They need to go 5-0. Jordan Zimmermann has to defeat St. Louis pitcher Kyle Lohse today. Zimmermann has been outstanding, but as John Heyman of CBS Sports pointed out, Lohse has been a sleeper Cy Young contender in the National League.

The Nationals would have to see Ross Detwiler defeat Lance Lynn on Sunday.

Then the Nationals would have to sweep the Phillies at home to finish the season.

Granted, the need to win 100 games is not as pressing as winning the division and the World Series.

But even having the chance at 100 wins after losing 103 as recently as 2009 is quite a deal for a Washington franchise.

The 1884 Washington Statesmen would be proud.

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The team that is leaving the National League for the American League broke the heart of the team that left the American League for the National League.

The Houston Astros, led by catcher Jason Castro’s two home runs, all but destroyed the postseason hopes of last year’s NL Central Division champion Milwaukee Brewers.

When the Brewers were on such a terrific run last week, no doubt they looked ahead on the schedule and expected the Astros to be an easy win.

But home runs by Castro, Brett Wallace and Jose Altuve gave Houston a lead it would hold onto.

The pitching matchup of Houston’s Edgar Gonzalez versus Milwaukee’s Yovani Gallardo looked like a mismatch in the Brewers’ favor.

Instead it was Gonzalez and the Houston bullpen who got the job done as Gallardo got shelled in six innings of work.

The Brewers had the tying run on base and the winning run at the plate in the form of Norichika Aoki. But he hit into a double play, ending the game and lowering the elimination number for the Brewers to one.

The Brewers had a recent run where they won eight of nine. But they would need to be perfect throughout the rest of the season and hope their nemesis from 1982 and 2011, the Cardinals, lose some games as well.

Meanwhile, the Astros were the ones getting the good hitting and timely pitching. One more outing like this and the Brewers will be gone from the playoff picture.

The Astros might not be going anywhere this year, but if any team circled the Astros on the schedule as an easy win, beware. The Astros can beat a team that is not exactly expecting a fight.

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Attention Houston Astros fans. Do you want to prove your loyalty to your team for all-time? Do you want to show everyone, including Yankees, Red Sox and Cubs fans that your devotion to your team is second to no one?

Essentially, do you want to lay a claim to being as passionate a fan as anyone in all of baseball?

The solution is quite simple. Go to a game at Minute Maid Park in September of 2012.

And time is running out. Tomorrow is the second to last home game for the Astros. Wednesday is the finale.

Go to that game. There are undoubtedly good tickets available. The last few games in Houston had more empty seats than Clint Eastwood could ever speak to.

Memorize the lineup. There are only nine names to remember. And keep the ticket stub in your wallet. And remember what happened in the game. A few specific details would go a long way.

Then keep those memories of the lineup, the game and the results ready to be recited at a moment’s notice.

Eventually the Astros will be good again. Someday Minute Maid Park will be full and rocking. And you can look at the fair weather fans and ask them if they are real Astros fans.

And you will be able to say “I was there in 2012. I was an Astros fan when they were still in the National League. That was the year they were the worst Astros team of all time. I was there after they traded away all of their big leaguers and were just starting farmhands.”

Nobody would be able to question your loyalty when you say “They were starting Scott Moore and Fernando Martinez, Brett Wallace and Marwin Gonzalez.” And they will be even more impressed that you know it was “Marwin” and not “Marvin.”

Rattle off the lineup and what happened in the game and produce the ticket stub. You will impress the most passionate Red Sox, Yankee, Cubs and Cardinals fan with that loyalty.

It is a lifetime credential of being able to trump anyone’s devotion to a team.

It just takes a trip to the park either today or tomorrow and memorizing nine names and three plays. It is worth doing, Astros fans. Do it before the bandwagon gets crowded.

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Former Montreal Expo Ross Grimsley has company.

Gio González became the second 20-game winner in franchise history as the Washington Nationals inched a little closer to the National League East title.

He looked like an ace out there today. He pitched against a red-hot Milwaukee Brewers team and shut them down.

He pitched seven innings with no earned runs, three hits and a single walk. His ERA dropped to 2.84 and he remains in the Cy Young race.

So the Nationals will have a No. 1 starter going into the postseason, and it’s a fair bet that Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo is breathing a sigh of relief with Gonzalez’s performance.

Rizzo got a lot of grief for how he shut down All Star starter Stephen Strasburg for the season. LaVar and Dukes from CBS DC questioned the move before Strasburg was even officially shutdown.

And, as reported by Mark Zuckerman from CSNWashington.com, manager Davey Johnson blamed the media hype partially for Strasburg‘s subpar final few games.

Because, of course, the media put an innings limit on Strasburg and announced it in spring training.

Still, the franchise is in the playoffs for the first time since 1981, and the city of Washington is going to get their first taste of the post season since 1933.

A perfect storm of events—including the rapid maturation of key players and the decline of the Phillies and the Marlins—puts the Nats in this pleasantly unexpected place.

And Rizzo was removing a key arm.

If Gonzalez pitches like he did today and like he has all year, the Strasburg decision will be forgotten quicker. Most teams would be just fine having Jordan Zimmermann, Ross Detwiler and Edwin Jackson as their second, third and fourth pitchers.

Then again, having Gio and Strasburg going 1-2 in a short series would make it almost a lock for Washington.

Well, it seems like a gamble Mike Rizzo is willing to take.

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The Miami Marlins signed Heath Bell in the offseason as part of their expensive and aggressive push to win in their new stadium for 2012.

If anything has gone over worse than the dancing Marlins statue in center field, it has been Heath Bell’s first year in Florida.

He has fallen in and out of the closer role, seeing his ERA balloon to 5.34 as of this writing. He gives up more than a hit an inning, and his WHIP is an amazing 1.610. He isn’t walking many batters, but that seems to be because he is giving up so many hits.

He has blown seven of his 26 save opportunities and has been the very symbol of this disappointing season in South Florida.

And good news, Marlins fans! He is signed for the next two years.

It would probably be best for Bell to have a change of scenery. But how can the Marlins move him and his $18 million guaranteed?

Obviously, the first call would be to the Dodgers to see if they are willing to take on even more big bucks for rotten contracts.

Failing that, the Marlins need to find a partner who also wants to move a player needing a change.

The Vernon Wells and John Lackeys of the world make too much money. But the Marlins, the team at the furthest point Southeast in the major leagues, should look clear across the country to the Northwest and the Seattle Mariners.

They have Chone Figgins, whose time away from the Angels has also been a disappointment. Virtually all of his stats dropped in 2010, his first year in Seattle.

And that season was by far his best. His average has plummeted to sub .190. He has 22 extra base hits total in the past two seasons combined. And his walk total is falling like a rock as well.

He is owed $17 million over the next two seasons if he gets 600 plate appearances in 2013.

Here is the proposed deal: Have the Mariners pick up the option and send Figgins and $1 million to the Marlins for Heath Bell and a minor leaguer.

The Mariners would get a veteran pitcher entering a pitchers park. Bell would pitch alongside closer Tom Wilhelmsen and young relievers Charlie Furbush and Lucas Luetge, as their bullpen is strong enough to have a veteran in a smaller role.

The Mariners would also get a minor leaguer that would be the equivalent of getting a draft pick for Figgins had they let him go via free agency. Chances are they would never have offered Figgins arbitration, so the farmhand would be an extra bonus.

Meanwhile the Marlins would remove the tension of using Bell and would have the versatile Figgins on their roster.

Cut from the same speedy and hustling cloth as Ozzie Guillen, perhaps Figgins could be a useful tool for a National League team. He can come in as a pinch runner and fill in in the outfield and infield. Plus he would bring a veteran presence to the bench that goes with 35 career playoff games and a World Series title.

The trade may not work. Figgins might be buried on the bench in Miami, and Bell could be shelled in the American League.

But we already know the players are not working where they are currently playing now.

How bad could a change be for them? It’s certainly worth traveling 3,355 miles to find out.

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